System and method of handling product returns

ABSTRACT

A method and program product for conducting business transactions, transferring product ownership and handling product returns with paperless receipts. Biometric data and product or transaction specific identification information is included with electronic receipts generated for each purchase. The same information may be collected when a product is presented for a return and refund that is based on an electronic or paper receipt. The information collected at the return is compared against the same information in the electronic receipt, automating the return-handling process and reducing the frequency of fraudulent returns.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention is a continuation in part of published U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/430,824 (Attorney Docket No. BLD920030021US1),entitled “Point-of-Sale Receipt Electronic Generation” to Joan L.Mitchell et al., filed May 6, 2003 and published Nov. 11, 2004,publication No. 2004/0225567 A1; and related to U.S. Pat. No. 6,883,706B2 (Attorney Docket No. BLD920030020US1), entitled “Point-of-Sale BillAuthentication” to Scott D. Mastie et al., issued Apr. 26, 2005; topublished U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/446,204 (Attorney DocketNo. BLD920030019US1), entitled “Expense Accounting Data Management Basedon Electronic Expense Document” to Joan L. Mitchell et al., filed May27, 2003 and published Dec. 2, 2004, publication No. 2004/0243489 A1;and to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/______ (Attorney Docket No.BLD920050045US1), entitled “System And Method of Directly ProvidingElectronic Receipts” to Scott D. Mastie et al., filed coincidentherewith; all assigned to the assignee of the present invention andincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to business transactions andmore particularly to returning goods purchased as in-store businesstransactions and through self service transactions at electronic Pointof Sale kiosks and the like.

2. Background Description

Currently, retail stores typically produce a paper receipt reflecting apurchase or purchases by each customer. Normally, a point-of-saleterminal generates the paper receipt, which lists each item purchased.Traditionally, the merchant passes the paper receipt to the customer,which the customer must retain for any allowed returns. Customersfrequently discard or misplace paper receipts and, in the case of gifts,may never receive a gift receipt. However, merchants normally requirethe original paper receipt to return items for refund. Consequently, ifa customer fails to produce the receipt, at best, the customer may beallowed to exchange the item for comparable merchandise or merchandiseof the same value.

One reason merchants require original receipts is that during theChristmas season, especially, thieves target cars with bags in sight.Without a receipt, a thief cannot return stolen goods. If, however, thereceipt is in a bag with merchandise, after breaking into the car andstealing the packages, the thief has the merchandise and the receipt.The thief can make the return and the customer is left with auto damageand the bill. Consequently, retail clerks have begun asking ifpurchasers want their receipts placed in the bag with their purchases orkept separately. In a further effort to discourage thieves, somemerchants insist on only refunding money to the credit card account usedoriginally for purchasing returned items. This can be awkward for gifts,for example, where a newlywed couple/recipient may prefer immediate,unannounced access to the purchase money without notifying thegift-giver of having returned the gift.

Thus, there is a need to allow customers to return goods even without apaper receipt, and more particularly, to allow someone with validpossession of purchased merchandise to make such returns whilepreventing fraudulent returns and while discouraging theft.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore a purpose of the invention to eliminate the need forpaper receipts;

It is another purpose of this invention to reduce the incidence offraudulent returns in retail sales;

It is yet another purpose of the invention to eliminate the need forpaper receipts, while allowing returns for purchased goods withoutrequiring paper receipts, while reducing the incidence of fraudulentreturns in retail sales.

The present invention is related to a method and program product forconducting business transactions, transferring product ownership andhandling product returns with paperless receipts. Biometric data andproduct specific identification information may be included withelectronic receipts generated for each purchase. The same information iscollected when a product is presented for a return and refund that isbased on an electronic receipt. The information collected at the returnis compared against the same information in the electronic receipt. Aslong as the information matches, the return is accepted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be betterunderstood from the following detailed description of a preferredembodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows an example of a preferred point-of-sale (POS) terminalelectronic receipt generation/electronic return environment, fortransacting business at POS terminals.

FIGS. 2A-B show an example of generating electronic receipts for use inelectronic returns according to a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Turning now to the drawings, and more particularly, FIG. 1 shows anexample of a preferred point-of-sale (POS) terminal electronic receiptgeneration/electronic return environment 10, customer location (i.e.,identified with a client business) 12 and point-of-sale terminal 14(hereinafter “POS terminal 14”), such as described in published U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/430,824 (Attorney Docket No.BLD920030021US1), entitled “Point-of-Sale Electronic Receipt Generation”to Joan L. Mitchell et al., filed May 6, 2003, published Nov. 11, 2004,publication No. 2004/0225567 A1, assigned to the assignee of the presentinvention and incorporated herein by reference. Customer locations 12(e.g., a wallet carried by a customer) include, for example, cash 16, acheck 18, a credit card 20 and/or a smart card 22, or any other suitablewell known payment mechanism(s) for paying for merchandise, e.g., giftcertificates or store credits. Each customer location 12 may alsocommunicate with POS terminal 14 using a personal digital assistant(PDA) 24 or any other suitable handheld computer or communicationsystem, with personal storage and an appropriate communication port (notshown), e.g., infrared (IR) or radio frequency identification (RFID).POS terminal 14 may be a self-service electronic POS kiosk and isequipped to conduct each sales transaction, generates an electronicreceipt 26 for each and, optionally, provide a conventional paperreceipt 28. According to a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, purchasers may return purchases based solely on electronicreceipts, even when the original paper receipt has been destroyed, lostor is otherwise no longer available.

As used herein for example only, a customer, shopper or purchaser (usedinterchangeably) at a customer location 12 may be identified with aprivate or public concern and is conducting a transaction with amerchant or other business concern. The private concern may be, forexample an individual, a business or other organization or business.Thus, a customer/purchaser may be a member of the household, a businessemployee or a member of a private organization or a government employee.Similarly, although a typical merchant may be located, for example, at aretail place of business, the business concern 30 may be any business ornon-profit private or public organization that issues receipts forcollected money, e.g., in exchange for purchases. Preferably, the POSterminals 14 are located with the business concern 30, e.g., on thepremises of a department or grocery store or, any place of business thatnormally requires proof of purchase for returns. Further, POS terminal14 kiosks may include dedicated or self-service kiosks such as, forexample, a Wedding Registry kiosk, a Bridal Shower kiosk, a New Babykiosk, a Bar Mitzvah kiosk, or any other kiosk set up for a specialfamily or person event.

Further, each POS terminal 14 may include an imager 40, a check/currencyinserter 42, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, web cam or IR cam) 44, athumb reader 45, a receipt instruction receiver 46 with a receiptdestination retriever 62, an electronic receipt generator (ERG) 48 withan authenticating data generator (ADG) 50, a transmitter 52 and anyother components (OC) 54. Imager 40 converts cash (paper currency orbills) 16, and/or checks 18 into images 58 that may be inserted bycheck/currency inserter 42 into a paper receipt, 28 an electronicreceipt 26 or both for recordation. Electronic receipt generation andstorage is also described, for example, in published U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/446,204 (Attorney Docket No. BLD920030019US1)entitled “Expense Accounting Data Management Based on Electronic ExpenseDocument” to Joan L. Mitchell et al., filed May 27, 2003, published Dec.2, 2004, publication No. 2004/0243489 A1, assigned to the assignee ofthe present invention and incorporated herein by reference.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, personalelectronic receipts may be accompanied by purchaser biometric data,e.g., a digital photo, thumbprint, or an IR signature. These personalelectronic receipts are delivered to the purchaser coincident withpurchases, such as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/______ (Attorney Docket No. BLD920050045US1), entitled “System AndMethod of Directly Providing Electronic Receipts” to Scott D. Mastie etal., filed coincident herewith, assigned to the assignee of the presentinvention and incorporated herein by reference. Once delivered, thepersonal electronic receipts may be retrieved from electronic storage,e.g., in PDA/other handheld device, or recalled merely based onaccompanying biometric/other data. Since all of this unique informationis captured in the electronic receipt, paper receipts are unnecessaryfor most users. Further, for added security/authentication similarbiometric data may accompany any electronic returns that are basedsolely on electronic receipts. For example, a digital picture orthumbprint may be taken of each person returning merchandise, e.g., bycamera 44, or a thumb reader 45.

Receipt instruction receiver (RIR) 46 may include a destinationretriever (DR) 62 and receive receipt instructions (RI) 60. Each receiptinstruction 60 includes a Receipt Destination Identifier (RDI) 64 and acontent instruction (CI) 66. A receipt instruction 60 reflectscommunicated customer preferences, e.g., provided verbally and manuallyentered to POS terminal 14 or electronically generated. Electronicallygenerated customer preferences may be gathered, for example, from anelectronic payment from, e.g., a credit card 20, a smart card 22, a PDA24 or any other suitable electronic payment mechanism. Each RDI 64expressly or implicitly indicates where to send a correspondingelectronic receipt. An RDI 64 may expressly state a receipt destination65 as, for example, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a mailingaddress, an e-mail address, e.g., for a non-volatile storage. Customeridentification may imply a receipt destination 65 stored in a receiptdestination database 68, e.g., by business name, by credit card number,by smart card identification, or by PDA based IR communications.

So, with each purchase the destination retriever 62 retrieves implieddestinations from receipt destination database 68. The electronicreceipt generator 48 generates an electronic receipt 26 and a personalelectronic receipt 27 for each transaction, e.g., from date and time;merchant; issuing agent; merchant address and customer specificinformation. Electronic receipts may be in a standard format, e.g.,electronic data interchange (EDI) format or personalized for electronicreceipts 26 and personal electronic receipts 27 and based on contentinstruction 66, e.g., indicated in a content database 70. Authenticationdata generator 50 can provide transaction authentication data 72 forconfirming that an electronic receipt 26 has not been altered. Forexample, authentication data 72 may include receipt contents, date,time, a merchant identification or, biometric data collected from thepurchaser. The authentication data 72 may be stored at a merchant system74 for access by receipt destination 65 with each receipt 26 ortransmitted separately to receipt destination 65. The transmitter 52communicates electronic receipts 26, personal electronic receipts, andauthentication data 72 to receipt destinations 65, the customer location12 and/or merchant system 74. Electronic returns are based oninformation included in the personal electronic receipt 27, and madethrough substantially the reverse process as electronic receiptgeneration, as set forth in further detail hereinbelow.

The POS terminal 14 may include other components 54, such as forexample, a keyboard, a central processing unit (CPU), a monitor, a barcode scanner, a telecommunications system, a credit card authenticationsystem, a smart card authentication system, a PDA communications system,RFID detection modules and/or a cash drawer. The receipt destination 65may include an expense accounting system 80 such as a customer/employerexpense reporting system, a customer personal expense tracking system(e.g., Quicken®, Microsoft Money®, TurboTax® or a spreadsheetapplication) and/or a customer accountant expense tracking system. Also,the expense account system 80 may include an expense categorizer (EC) 82categorizing each electronic receipt 26 into an expense category, e.g.,clothing, food, or entertainment. A tax data collector (TDC) 84 gatherstax related data in electronic receipts 26, e.g., sales tax, deductibleexpenses, deductible donations, and medical expenses. A tax authority(TA) 86 (e.g., the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), a state taxdepartment, or foreign equivalent thereof) may provide tax relatedinformation or, tax related information may be otherwise provided. Also,the receipt destination 65 may include appropriate receipt storage 88for long term archiving.

FIGS. 2A-B show an example of generating personal electronic receiptsfor use in electronic returns according to a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention. In particular FIG. 2A shows the steps 100 ingenerating personal electronic receipts that begins in step 102 by acustomer presenting goods for purchase. As noted hereinabove, biometricdata may be collected in step 104 to accompany each personal electronicreceipt, including for example, the purchaser's digital photo,thumbprint, or IR signature. Also, in step 106 information is collectedon the goods being purchased so that each personal electronic receiptmay include itemized serial numbers (S/Ns), if known, listed with eachitem. So, for example, if the merchandise is tagged with RFIDs or aunique barcode that is scannable with a typical barcode scanner, thescan may include respective S/N for listing on the personal electronicreceipt. When, for example, the merchandise is not tagged, such detailmay be optional, e.g., included/required only for merchandise above athreshold value. So, in step 108 in this variation, after scanning for abasic purchase, a secondary scan may be required for any item thatexceeds the threshold, e.g., items priced above $100 or any otherselected financial threshold. In this second scan in step 110 the POSterminal 14 collects the unique S/N of the device or the clerk entersthe S/N with the purchase price, to capture the unique S/N forgenerating the personal electronic receipt in step 112. This personalelectronic receipt may aid any future warranty claim and may be requiredfor an electronic return. In step 114 the electronic receipt is passedto the purchaser, e.g., transmitted by IR, Bluetooth or WiFi to thecustomer's PDA.

Also, since the personal electronic receipt is an itemized list ofpurchased items, the purchaser may electronically transfer ownershipwith the right to return to someone else. Moreover, multiple owners maybe included in an electronic receipt for future ownership transfers,e.g., for gifts. Thus, such electronic receipts may be used to establishan electronic “chain of title” for nearly any personal property. So witheach gift purchase, for example, the electronic receipt may list theoriginal owner as well as the intended recipient(s) down the intendedelectronic “chain of title” to allow returning the gifts at any pointbefore they are given. An errand-running agency may simply andconveniently convey personal electronic receipts to their principalswith transfer of the purchased goods. Once these personal electronicreceipts are conveyed to the purchaser/owner in step 114, thepurchaser/owner may return the goods based solely on the personalelectronic receipt. Also, the recipients, e.g., a wedding couple as wellas a relative who was likely to run errands, may be listed with thepurchaser. A grandparent's gift to a grandchild through the child'sparents, for example, may be replaced or refunded at the giftdestination, i.e., by the parents and/or child, without requiring eitherto travel back to the grandparent's location for the refund/exchange. Inall such cases, the invention allows the final recipient of a gift to beauthorized to handle the exchange or cash-equivalent of a gift, whileprecluding any intermediate parties (intended or unintended) from layingclaim to the gift.

FIG. 2B shows an example of the steps 120 of making an electronic returnaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Uponpresenting the goods for return in step 122, the purchaser may retrievethe corresponding personal electronic receipt in step 124, e.g., fromthe PDA/other handheld device, either in addition to a paper receipt, orreplacing the paper receipt entirely with an electronic receipt. Then,the purchaser passes the electronic receipt to the merchant, e.g., byuploading the personal electronic receipt substantially the same as itwas downloaded. Alternately, if an RFID tag or barcode label is stillattached to goods being returned, the merchant may recall the personalelectronic receipt based on the tag/label and accompanyingbiometric/other data. Preferably, in step 126 the merchant collectsbiometric data to accompany the electronic return for addedsecurity/authentication. So, for example, the merchant may take adigital picture of each person returning merchandise. The merchant alsogathers identifying data from the goods being returned. In step 128 themerchant compares the gathered data with the personal electronic receiptand, if there is a match, in step 130 the merchant completes the return.Otherwise, if the gathered data does not match the personal electronicreceipt, then in step 132 the merchant can decide whether to just refusethe return in step 134 or, take other appropriate action, e.g., bynotifying the authorities and providing a digital image of a suspectedparty.

Advantageously, personal electronic receipts and electronic returns areconvenient for both the merchant and the customer. Electronic returnsfacilitate fraud detection, making it relatively easy to identifysuspicious activity, e.g., where the original purchaser has reported atheft. Fraud may be detected, for example, by identifying someone thatis making an extraordinary number of returns, but to several differentsales clerks over a relatively short period of time. This type ofactivity might not normally arouse suspicion, even though all of thereturn activity, taken as a whole, appears otherwise. Also, items may bereturned where the collected original biometric data does not match thatfor the return, for example, and no transfer of ownership has beenrecorded. Discovering the discrepancy warns the merchant to take action,e.g., question the returner or notify the proper authorities. Also,often enough, customers may mistakenly return the wrong item to thewrong store, e.g., due to a memory lapse or confusion. By comparing theserial number of items being returned to items that were sold and listedin the personal electronic receipt, the merchant can identify sucherrors. The merchant can also utilize the information in the electronicreceipt to augment the refund/exchange process, in the case when a paperreceipt is presented.

Thus, merchants may allow (line-item) returns of merchandise based on apersonal electronic receipt or biometric data rather than insisting on apaper receipt. Returns may be made based, for example, solely on thereturner's thumbprint. Merchants can verify that the returns are forlegitimately purchased goods, using long term image storage andassociated coded data for superior customer service whilereducing/preventing the incidence of fraudulent returns, and the laborand paperwork required to manage exchange/returns via paper receipts.This reduces lost income to the merchant from fraudulent returns. Sincethe individuals involved in each purchase (i.e., the purchaser and themerchant) are aware of specifics for every purchase, confused returnsand falsely contested purchases occur much less frequently. With orwithout a paper receipt the merchant's return desk can handle returnsefficiently just by having access to the purchase record database. Anitem's barcode number, for example, accompanied by the returner'sdrivers license, biometric data, or another suitable customerverification check, may provide sufficient confirmation that thereturner was the purchaser or that the purchase was made on thereturner's behalf or prior to a valid transfer of ownership.

While the invention has been described in terms of preferredembodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the inventioncan be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of theappended claims. It is intended that all such variations andmodifications fall within the scope of the appended claims. Examples anddrawings are, accordingly, to be regarded as illustrative rather thanrestrictive.

1. A method of conducting business transactions, said method comprisingthe steps of: a) presenting an item for return; b) collectingidentification data for said presented item; c) retrieving an electronicreceipt for said presented item; d) comparing collected identificationdata against retrieved electronic receipt data; and when compared datamatches e) completing the return of said presented item.
 2. A method asin claim 1, wherein the step (b) of collecting identification datacomprises collecting personal data for a person presenting said item forreturn.
 3. A method as in claim 2, wherein personal data comprisesbiometric data for said person.
 4. A method as in claim 2, whereinpersonal data comprises a digital image of said person.
 5. A method asin claim 2, wherein said electronic receipt includes purchaser personaldata collected when said electronic receipt was generated, collectedsaid personal data being compared against said purchaser personal data.6. A method as in claim 5, wherein when compared said personal datafails to match, said method further comprises selectively contactingauthorities.
 7. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step (b) ofcollecting identification data comprises retrieving a serial number fromsaid item.
 8. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step (c) of retrievingsaid electronic receipt comprises retrieving said electronic receiptfrom electronic storage.
 9. A method as in claim 1, wherein saidelectronic receipt includes purchaser biometric data and one or moreserial numbers of purchased items.
 10. A method as in claim 1, whereinsaid electronic receipt indicates transfer of ownership from saidpurchaser to a second party and the step (d) of comparing collectedidentification data compares collected said data against date retrievedfor said second party.
 11. A method of conducting business transactions,said method comprising the steps of: a) presenting items for purchase;b) collecting identification data for purchase; c) generating anelectronic receipt for purchase of said items; d) presenting one or moreof said items for return; e) collecting identification data for eachpresented item; f) retrieving said electronic receipt; g) comparingcollected identification data for said each presented item againstretrieved electronic receipt data; and when compared data matches h)completing the return of said each presented item.
 12. A method as inclaim 11, wherein the steps (b) and (e) of collecting identificationdata respectively comprises collecting personal data for a purchaser andfor a returner.
 13. A method as in claim 12, wherein personal datacomprises biometric data for said purchaser and said returner.
 14. Amethod as in claim 12, wherein personal data comprises a digital imageof a person.
 15. A method as in claim 12, wherein serial numbers arecollected for one or more purchase items in step (b) and for said eachitem in step (e).
 16. A method as in claim 15, wherein the step (b) ofcollecting identification data comprises identifying ones of saidpurchase items above a threshold value, said serial numbers beingcollected for said ones.
 17. A method as in claim 12, wherein whencompared said personal data fails to match, said method furthercomprises selectively contacting authorities.
 18. A method as in claim12, wherein the step (c) of retrieving said electronic receipt comprisesretrieving said electronic receipt from electronic storage.
 19. Acomputer program product for conducting business transactions, saidcomputer program product comprising a computer usable medium havingcomputer readable program code thereon, said computer readable programcode comprising: computer program code means for recording informationabout goods for sale and goods being returned; computer program codemeans for generating electronic receipts for each purchase, saidelectronic receipts including selected recorded information; computerprogram code means for comparing said recorded information included onan electronic receipt against said recorded information for said goodsbeing returned; and computer program code means for indicating a matchof compared said recorded information.
 20. A computer program productfor conducting business transactions as in claim 19, wherein saidcomputer program code means for recording information comprises computerprogram code means for receiving biometric information about purchasersand returners, received purchaser biometric information being includedon each said electronic receipt.